Voting cards for deceased bring 'sad memories'

Some households in county Cork are still receiving voting cards for loved ones who died as long as ten years ago causing emotional distress, Cork County Council has heard.

At Monday’s full Council meeting, Independent Cllr Danny Collins said he has spoken to numerous constituents who are faced with painful memories every time an election comes around.

He said: “Something has to be done. There are people out there who say to me: ‘Danny, I got a voting card for my late wife, my late husband, my late son – and it’s only bringing back the sad memories’.”

In 2023, the Irish government formally established the Electoral Commission. One of its core tasks is to oversee the management of the electoral register. In May this year, the committee published the Oversight Report on the Electoral Registers with an aim to address Ireland’s bloated register. It identified three main causes: duplication – where a person is registered at more than one address; emigration – where a person left the country without removing themselves from the register; and death – where a deceased person is still registered to vote.

Cllr Collins continued: “The Electoral Commission has to look at that. If a person is deceased, they should be taken off (the register) right away.”

Fianna Fáil Cllr Patrick O’Donovan echoed Mr Collins’ concerns, and said the Electoral Commission still has a lot of work to do.

He said: “People contact us a lot, saying that their mother or their father is still getting a polling card ten years after they’ve passed, and it’s hard.

“It is becoming more centralised under the new Electoral Commission which should help tidy it up, but there’s a job of work to be done.”

Responding to the councillors’ comments, Chief Executive Moira Murrell confirmed the council is “working on that” and said, “there’s much done and more to do on it”.